INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION - 2022/3

Module Overview

The purpose of this module is to expand the students’ knowledge of Public Health Nutrition. The module should introduce them to the topic of PHN and the issues surrounding food and nutrition for the UK population’s nutritional health plus a wider view of global food security and nutritional health.

Module provider

School of Biosciences

Module Leader

BATH Sarah (Biosciences)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Global, national and local perspectives in Public Health Nutrition,


• The UK demographic - Determinants of health/health statistics


• Nutrition policy and guidelines


• Food based dietary guidelines, nutrition recommendations and regulation


• Policy to practice - Current PHN activity in the UK and evaluating impact; Programme planning, implementing and evaluation.


• From research into policy and practice


• Public Health Nutrition in the media


• Use of social media in nutrition


• Generation and use of nutritional data in the UK


• Food labelling and consumer perspectives - UK & EU


• UK and International Nutrition- Food supply and sustainability /issues global food supply, insecurity and insufficiency


• Malnutrition and  Micronutrient deficiency in malnourished/developing  populations


• Developing nations and the double burden of disease                             


• Challenges for international nutrition: data and resources for these environments implementing nutrition interventions. 

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

Overall the assessments are designed to assess knowledge, the ability to apply that knowledge to activities/situations, and to communicate and disseminate information. Ability to be critical is also assessed throughout. 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

Assignment 1 to assess the ability to gather and interpret data and to apply this to a public-health issue in the UK, drawing on evidence and current UK public health policies.

Assignment 2. to assess engagement with the current literature and the ability to communicate complex information on global nutrition issues in a concise and easy-to-understand format. Students will choose a topic (from a list) related to global nutrition issues. 

Module aims

• To introduce the theoretical concepts of public health nutrition including national and international food and nutrition policies, organisations and guidelines
• To review the important design strategies for design, planning and evaluation of PHN initiatives, related to UK population and policy
• To introduce the principles of the development of nutrition guidelines for the population
• To provide a working knowledge of the collection and use of food composition data and nutritional information from surveys with particular reference to nutritional surveillance in the UK
• To provide an overview of food regulation and labelling in the UK
• To introduce the broad issues around food security and sustainability of supply at home and globally
• To introduce the issues in international nutrition, and develop knowledge on public health intervention in challenging environments
• To stimulate understanding of the range of nutrition issues that occur internationally

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

Cover material via a combination of lectures and interactive tutorials and seminars. The material is covered by a variety of internal and external speakers to maximise expertise. Lecturers are encouraged to integrate some active learning within tutorials to integrate learning styles, and maintain engagement.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures to provide foundation material, data and evidence base.


• Seminar presentation of recent research relating to PHN policy


• Class activities integrated within tutorial hours 


• Class discussions through tutorials


• References and reading to support evidence base throughout


• Tutorials/discussions on coursework topics


• Throughout duration of module (via the use of discussion facility within SurreyLearn), encouragement to engage with peers in discussion and debate on recent and relevant current affairs issues or news articles

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: BMS3058

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2022/3 academic year.